BELGRADE, SerbiaTHE public face of Serbia for years has been that of a wizened war criminal in the dock in The Hague. Now, as the once-outcast country presses for membership in the European Union, it is increasingly represented by the gap-toothed grin of its energetic young foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, all of 34 and a graduate of Cambridge and Harvard.
It is not just appearances. He is a minister in the most westward-leaning government Serbia has ever had, one that is aggressively pursuing membership in the European Union and good relations with the United States. Yet at the top of his agenda stands the issue that brought so much trouble to Serbia: the breakaway province and self-declared nation of Kosovo.
To the consternation of powerful supporters of Kosovo’s independence, including the United States, the Serbian obsession runs much deeper than a handful of ultranationalists from the generation of Slobodan Milosevic. Even young liberals like Mr. Jeremic, whose fluent English sounds more Bronxville than Belgrade, cannot let go of Kosovo, though it could endanger Serbia’s chance to move beyond its recent troubled past.
“The fact that this kind of fervent, pro-European politician in Serbia happens to have this position on Kosovo confuses a lot of people,” Mr. Jeremic said in an interview on the eve of the Orthodox Christmas here last week.
“This place, Kosovo, is our Jerusalem; you just can’t treat it any other way than our Jerusalem,” he said.
It is a good profile, but I cannot believe that he is serious about this “Jerusalem” stuff. He has to say this sort of thing because Serbian politicians are trapped in a Prisoners Dilemma.
If they all cooperated, and told the truth, they could tell the country what most admit privately: Kosovo is gone. The best that can be hoped for is some sort of partition or territory exchange; perhaps global recognition that the way that Kosovo came to be independent was both illegal and grossly unfair to Serbs; some concession from the EU during accession negotiations. That’s it.
The problem here in Serbia is that all politicians – with the exception of Cedomir Jovanovic – maintain the pretence publicly that Kosovo can be “saved”, that is, can be returned to Serbian rule. Any deviation from this position risks political suicide.
One thing is certain: Unless they are conquered militarily, Kosovo’s Albanians will never again submit to Serbian rule. The only way to “save” Kosovo would be to invade it, and that is not going to happen any time soon.
